Software Development Life Cycle

Developing and maintaining software is a very complex undertaking that requires a great deal of structure, organization, and discipline. Application software is used to automate or support key business processes. Organizations rely heavily on applications to be operating properly, on demand, and with sufficient capacity.

Designing, developing, and using software requires a diverse array of skills that are typically located in several parts of an organization. These diverse skills are carried out by persons with different levels and styles of education, and in the workplace these dif­ferent groups of people are sometimes suspicious of one another and believe that the others do not really understand the way things ought to be.

Software development projects are expensive. Given the cost of developers, project managers, software tools, and computer hardware, even a "small" project can easily run many tens of thousands of dollars, and large projects can cost several million.

Management wants the project to finish on time and on budget, and users want the software to operate as promised. Shareholders want the entire development process to be efficient and effective.

These factors are among those that demand that the software development process be highly organized and structured, so that all activities are performed according to a plan. The software development life cycle (SDLC) is a framework for deciding what soft­ware should do, building it accordingly performing testing to verify features, placing it in production, providing support, and maintaining it after initial implementation.

SDLC Phases

The software development life cycle (SDLC) is the term used to describe the "end-to-end" process for developing and maintaining software. A common structure for SDLC is a waterfall style framework that consists of distinct phases:

• Feasibility study
• Requirements definition
• Design
• Development
• Testing
• Implementation
• Post-implementation

Questionnaire:

• Explain about the software development life cycle?